igetdownloads: июня 2011

четверг, 30 июня 2011 г.

My Wonderful Days makes journaling easy

My Wonderful Days is a US$0.99 journaling app that makes recording your thoughts incredibly easy. It's designed to let you quickly jot down your activities and rate your feelings using a happiness meter. There's no pressure to write long passages on your iPhone or iPod touch. It's all about capturing the moment in a few words, almost like Twitter for your diary.

App Experience:

My Wonderful Days features a clean, uncluttered interface with charming, hand-drawn icons. It uses a black and white motif and is easy on the eyes. My Wonderful Days is easy to use, but I wish the icons had labels. Several times I tapped an icon because I had no idea what it did. The app is lightweight and responsive, which fits in nicely with is streamlined interface.

Functionality:

The app has several views, including a calendar view that lets you quickly see which days you made an entry, and an agenda-style view that lets you see your mood and the first few lines of your entry. There is also a search view that lets you search via word, happiness or star rating. The app remembers where you were when shut it down and opens back to the view.

Each entry lets you add text by clicking on a pencil icon, rating your mood on a happiness chart and adding a star for those memorable days. You can also swipe left and right to move ahead or go back a day. Once your thoughts are jotted down, you can click on the bullhorn icon to share your entry via Twitter, Facebook or email. When you are done, you can click on the paper icon to hop back to the main menu.

The settings are simple as well. You can enter your birthday into the app to get a special greeting, turn on an alert function to remind you to make an entry, toggle sound and toggle the password on and off. You can also change the greeting from "Today is" to anything you want and adjust the font. A backup feature lets you sync your journal entries with your computer via Wi-Fi.

Missing from the app is support for the camera. You can import a saved picture from your camera roll, but you cannot launch the camera, take a photo and have it automatically appear in your entry. There is also no landscape view, but that's not a deal breaker with this type of app. Landscape is convenient, and some people prefer it. For me, though, it's easier to read and type in portrait mode. Lastly, the app lacks any location features. It would be nice to have the option to toggle location on and off. If you are travelling you can record a memorable moment with GPS support, and the app will automatically insert the location into your entry.

Pros and Cons:

Pros:

easy to use
stable application
simple interface that is pleasing to the eyes
photo import
customizable greeting and fonts
backup and restore to a computer via Wi-Fi
social networking, alarm and password features

Cons:

no support for the camera
icons can be confusing and could use labels until you get used to the interface
no landscape view or native iPad support
no location services

Conclusion:

My Wonderful Days is an excellent app for recording quick thoughts and your general mood on any given day. It's easy to use, so you are more likely to be consistent and do it for the long-term. So many people give up on their diary because they feel they have to write a novella for each entry. My Wonderful Days removes that temptation.

Developed by haha Interactive, My Wonderful Days is available for 99 cents in the App Store and is worth a download for those that like to record their thoughts while on the run.

Gallery: My Wonderful Days

My Wonderful Days makes journaling easy originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 30 Jun 2011 06:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Far Manager: powerful, old-school file and archive manager

Orthodox file managers are back with a vengeance! This was my first thought when I saw the screenshots of Far Manager. 90% pure interface of Norton Commander from the eighties/nineties of the last century. But despite the freaky look Far Manager is one of the best free Windows file managers. Far Manager Norton Commander ver [...]

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Remains of the Day: Google Swiffy Converts Flash Animations to HTML5

Apple talks about Final Cut Pro X, Microsoft releases a new preview build of Internet Explorer 10, and Google Swiffy automagically converts your SWF animations to HTML5. More »

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Stars aligning on combined Lion, MacBook Air launch in mid-July

The stars are aligning for a mid-July launch of both Mac OS X Lion and updated MacBook Airs, if the rumor mill is to be believed. Three sources across two different sites seem to have similar information regarding the timing of these announcements—one from 9 to 5 Mac, who claims the two products will launch hand-in-hand in the middle of the month (possibly July 14), while the other two are from Apple'n'Apps, who peg the date as July 19.

According to 9 to 5 Mac's source, the updated MacBook Airs will indeed carry Intel's Sandy Bridge processors, though they will look virtually the same as the current-model MacBook Air. "[A]ccording to a person who has seen the new MacBook Air, exterior changes (if any) were so minute that they were not noticed," the site wrote. The only exception is the apparent replacement of the Mini DisplayPort logo with a Thunderbolt logo on the side of the machine. The new Airs will also allegedly come preloaded with Lion, consistent with previous rumors.

Apple'n'Apps adds to the speculation by claiming that Apple has been throwing around an internal launch date of July 19 for both products. (The caveat is that the date could change at any time.) Again, the site says that the new MacBook Airs will launch with Lion preinstalled, though it also claims that the Lion golden master should be ready by next week: "The MacBook Air will launch with a Golden Master of Lion, and the GM of Lion should be ready around the 4th of July."

The expectation that Apple is waiting for Lion in order to roll out the Sandy Bridge-equipped MacBook Airs is not new—previous rumors had also suggested that Apple wanted to launch them together in order to best showcase both products. Not only is the MacBook Air the least traditional of Apple's notebooks, Lion has a number of features that complement the MacBook Air's so-called "instant-on" abilities, including Auto Save and Auto Resume, making the MacBook Air one of the best ways for Apple to show off the capabilities of its new OS.

On top of all this, Apple is supposedly expecting increased demand for the new MacBook Air starting in July, according to those within the supply chain. Meanwhile, stock of the current MacBook Air models are dwindling at online retailers like Best Buy, Amazon, Macmall, and others. With Apple's third quarter earnings announcement scheduled for July 19, it certainly seems as if things are beginning to converge, and we wouldn't be surprised to see both Lion and updated MacBook Airs appear side-by-side around that time after all.

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Promote Transparency on Your Desktop with GhostWin

Those who work with a lot of open windows on their computer know that they can be a bit of a drag to keep organized. Moving them around can inadvertently cover up others you meant to leave on top, and it would often be much easier if you could just see them all with one [...]

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Crowdsourcing firm puts $5k bounty on app patents

Good news for app developers as crowdsourcing company looks to kill app patents with $5,000 bounty

An American commercial patent research company says it plans to seek out "prior art" to invalidate a patent being used by MacroSolve to sue Apple, Android and BlackBerry app developers, and has invited developers to join in the search, the Guardian can reveal.

Anyone who discovers earlier information that leads to the patent's withdrawal could win ~~between~~ $5,000 ~~and $20,000~~ from Article One Partners, which is leading the search.

MacroSolve is one of two companies known to be suing app developers at present; the other, Lodsys, filed a number of lawsuits earlier this week against a number of Apple developers and one Android developer over the technology for in-app purchases.

MacroSolve, which holds a patent relating to collection and transmission of data for online questionnaires, filed suit against 10 companies in April.

Article One Partners, based in New York, uses crowdsourcing techniques and pays rewards of thousands of dollars to people who can uncover "prior art" ? demonstrating that the methods claimed in a patent have actually been used before.

Such examples invalidate a patent and therefore make any lawsuits, and payments related to the patents, null and void. It counts Microsoft among its clients, and has recently begun an invalidation search against Interval Licensing, which is claiming infringement by Microsoft, Apple and Google.

"We believe the Article One model benefits more than just the clients. This study is a prime example of how different parties ? application developers and the general public ? can participate in solving a potentially costly problem that impacts the burgeoning mobile app marketplace," said Cheryl Milone, chief executive of Article One Partners, in a statement to the Guardian.

Patent threats against smartphone app developers have emerged as a serious threat to the burgeoning ecosystem, because many are small businesses which do not have the finances or time to contest a patent claim, and could be put out of business by large demands for licencing fees from patent holders.

Invalidating such patents, or threatening to do so, may turn out to be app developers' most useful weapon if more examples of patent threats emerge against them. Striking out patents would destroy the revenue model of so-called "patent trolls" who own patents and wait for companies to emerge which apparently infringe their technology and demand a licence fee.

A separate analysis by M?Cam, an asset management firm, suggests that MacroSolve's patent may not be as broad as the company is claiming in its lawsuits, because other patents filed in 1997 and 1998 appear to overlap it. One of those was filed by Jeff Hawkins, inventor of the Palm Pilot, while at 3Com. M?Cam also lists more than a dozen other patents, many held by IBM, which precede MacroSolve's and would significantly narrow its applicaability.

M?Cam's analysis of Lodsys's patent, meanwhile, suggests that there are patents dating back more than a decade, and so still in force, which could either invalidate it or limit its validity to app developers. It also identifies 18 patents filed over the past 20 years by organisations as diverse as the US government and AT&T that could constitute prior art.

Article One distributes its challenges to more than 1 million people worldwide to research the validity of patents, and says that it had awarded $1.36m to people who have helped in its prior art searches since it set up in 2008.

In December it launched another "invalidation" crowdsourcing attempt against NTP, a company which successfully sued BlackBerry maker RIM and gained a $612m settlement in 2006. Since then it has filed suit against 13 other companies, including Apple, Microsoft, Google, Yahoo, AT&T, Motorola and Palm.

MacroSolve ? based in Montreal, Canada ? holds three US patents gained in 2003.

Article One Partners did not say on whose behalf, if anyone's, the prior art search is being carried out.

Prior art does not have to be a pre-existing patent claim; it is sufficient under US and European law for the methods that the patent represents to have been published anywhere in the world and in any language, including newspaper reports, textbooks, or public documents.

People who are considering filing patents are always warned not to document them publicly before filing for them because of the potential for invalidation in future; even a conference report can be sufficient for a challenge.

However, the US Patent Office has had serious challenges simply processing the number of patent filings submitted in the past 20 years, and is known not to be exhaustive in its search for prior art.

That leaves space for companies such as Article One Partners to find evidence that can shoot down patents and save companies facing lawsuits significant amounts.

? People who want to join the search can register at Article One's site, and view its patent study online.

Note: the headline and content of this article was altered at 2150 on Friday 3 June. The bounty for finding prior art is $5,000, not $20,000.

Charles Arthur

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

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Transformers: Dark of the Moon is equal parts terrible and weird (Light spoilers)

This afternoon, I took time away from my work reviewing video games to go to see an afternoon showing of Transformers: Dark of the Moon. This happened at 1:30PM on a Wednesday. The theater was packed, and I had to sit way in the front, and the bright, 3D picture took up my entire field of view. I took notes during the show, because at times it was hard to believe what I was seeing.

Dark of the Moon isn't just a bad movie, although it is certainly a very bad movie; it's also a profoundly weird movie. There will likely be spoilers in this review, but I'm not sure how to address the film without talking about a few scenes.

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BBC launches news app for TV

News app is first to deliver corporation's content direct to internet-connected TVs

The BBC has launched an app to allow the delivery of the corporation's news content direct to Samsung televisions in an attempt to position itself for the rise of internet-connected TV viewing.

The BBC News app is initially only available on Samsung's range of internet-connected TVs, but the corporation is looking to partner with other manufacturers including Sony and LG.

The app will also be available on YouView, the video-on-demand venture backed by the BBC, when the much-delayed set-top boxes launch next year.

BBC Worldwide, the corporation's commercial arm, will launch an international version of the product funded by advertising, expanding on the recent rollout of the iPlayer to European audiences.

For the first time, viewers can access the full range of content ? including text and video ? available on the BBC News website via a TV set.

Unveiling the product in London on Friday, Ralph Rivera, the BBC's director of digital media for future media and technology, said the app is a complement to the corporation's 24-hour news channel.

"I look at this as different pieces of glass to get to content that we have online, versus the silos that people try and create between [TV, laptop and mobile]," he said. "News in general is moving to a continuous stream live and a lot of people will tune into that."

The app is designed to look and feel like the BBC TV channel but with the depth of content available on the BBC News site, like an advanced red button service.

Unlike the BBC News app for the iPhone ? which has been downloaded more than 6m times since its launch ? viewers cannot live-stream the 24-hour news channel app, although the corporation hinted that could follow once connected TVs become more advanced.

Rivera also confirmed that plans to close half of the BBC's 400 top-level domains as part of 25% cuts to the corporation's online budget, announced in January, were still in the consultation period. He said that no websites had yet been closed, with the consulation period due to end in a month or two.

? To contact the MediaGuardian news desk email editor@mediaguardian.co.uk or phone 020 3353 3857. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 3353 2000. If you are writing a comment for publication, please mark clearly "for publication".

? To get the latest media news to your desktop or mobile, follow MediaGuardian on Twitter and Facebook

Josh Halliday

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

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Exception deleting file: Stack overflow

I keep getting this error. Syncback thinks a file is in my destination location even though I've removed it. Whenever I perform a backup, Syncback crashes. When I relaunch Syncback the profile still says "running" and cannot be stopped. Please help. Thank you! Source and destination are regular SATA drives with no compression. The following error appears in my log file. I've rebooted, deleted the profile, and created a new profile and the error still occurs.

Not in source, Failed to delete destination: Exception deleting file: Stack overflow

Windows 7 SP1 x64
Syncback V3.2.26.0 (en_US)

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Pidgin 2.9.0

MD5: E403E79BD25F01F00E03126E5FCD59A3
Information: website
Size: 31.62 MB
MediaFire: Download
License: Open Source
Pidgin is an instant messaging program for Windows, Linux, BSD, and other Unixes. You can talk to your friends using AIM, ICQ, Jabber/XMPP, MSN Messenger, Yahoo!, Bonjour, Gadu-Gadu, IRC, Novell GroupWise Messenger, QQ, Lotus Sametime, SILC, SIMPLE, and Zephyr. Pidgin can log in to multiple accounts on multiple [...]

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Lack of emphasis on prescriptive grammar in schools has given risen to common mistakes in speech

Students don't learn grammar in schools the way they used to, according to glencoe.com.

Five decades ago, English teachers taught the subject as a set of rules to be memorized. Sentence diagramming and drill exercises were the norm in this "prescriptive" education.

Today, schools emphasize "descriptive," or transformational, grammar, which is a user-oriented teaching style, as glencoe.com notes. Students' self-expression and actual speaking styles are emphasized over correct, proper English usage.

A piece in the New York Daily News describes a few of the grammatical errors that have become acceptable in daily speech due to the changing educational philosophy of the last 40 years. For example, split infinitives have become common. Moreover, adults often speak ambiguously without realizing their sentence errors. As the Daily News notes, one might easily instruct someone, "tell X to be here on Wednesday," without adequately conveying, as they intended, when X needs to be "here." The sentence, as structured, merely expresses that X needs to be spoken to on Wednesday.

Regardless of trends in classroom writing instruction, businesses and higher education institutions will still expect young adults to be able to utilize correct English. Spelling and grammar checks will become all the more imperative for professionals who wish to communicate effectively.

This post belongs to the World-Leading Language Solutions by WhiteSmoke - the original article can be viewed here - Lack of emphasis on prescriptive grammar in schools has given risen to common mistakes in speech

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Nokia chief denies Microsoft takeover

Nokia chief executive Stephen Elop says company is not in talks with Microsoft over buyout deal

Nokia has described rumours that Microsoft is in talks to buy it as "completely baseless", with chief executive Stephen Elop telling an audience in the US that there are no talks on the matter between the two companies.

"There's absolutely no discussion. The rumours are baseless. It is as clear as that," Elop said at the D9 conference near Los Angeles.

Rumours of an impending takeover fuelled a brief recovery in the stock on Wednesday after it had fallen substantially on a profits warning on Tuesday in which Nokia said that its mobile division might not make a profit this quarter for the first time in more than a decade.

But selling standard feature phones, which is roughly half of Nokia's mobile business, "does not align with Microsoft's business," Elop said.

Nokia and Microsoft signed a strategic alliance in February in which the US software company will pay billions of dollars to the Finnish phone maker to use the Windows Phone software in its top-end smartphones from later on this year.

Elop said there had been no takeover discussion and that he understood investors were waiting for the next generation of phones, which will replace the ageing Symbian operating system.

"My principal focus and the focus of the team is to take care of the short term but make sure that the execution is flawless", Mr Elop said at the conference.

He also denied suggestions that he had been planted at Nokia by Microsoft last September as a "Trojan horse" to prepare the company for a takeover. "The Trojan horse theory has been well overplayed," he said. "I refer you to the grassy knoll [the mythical source of a second killer of John F Kennedy in Dallas] for that one."

Elop agreed that this had not been a good news week, but said it "underscores the need for a new strategy" although the transition "certainly feels painful right now".

He reiterated that the reason for dumping Symbian in favour of Windows Phone was competitiveness: "Symbian was at a deficit in some markets [compared to the iPhone and Android]. Our assessment of the speed with which we could catch up [was that it] would not be enough." Symbian would take too long, he said, and was a bit "crufty" ? a programmer's term for code that has outdated elements which interfere with its operation and maintenance.

The iPhone's introduction meant that the "pendulum of innovation" swung over to North America with Apple and Canada's RIM, maker of the BlackBerry.

Elop explained that as part of the deal, some of Nokia's technology from its Navteq mapping subsidiary will be included in Windows Phone and made available to rival handset manufacturers also licensing Windows Phone in order that they can make the ecosystem for developers and users thrive.

A number of bloggers speculated that a deal with Microsoft had either already been done ? with some quoting a figure of $19bn (�11.6bn) ? or that it was being prepared for some time in the next month or so.

Nokia's market value has dropped precipitously in the past three years as its lead in the handset market has been eroded by Apple's iPhone ? which is now the biggest mobile company by revenue ? and phones using Google's Android OS. Elop considered using Android rather than Windows Phone but eventually turned it down on the basis that there would be no sustainable way to differentiate Nokia products in the long term.

Elop said that the deal with Microsoft was good for both sides: each needed a deal.

Charles Arthur

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

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Telus recruits Leonard Nimoy to vet your Facebook status updates

Have you ever thought your Facebook status updates lacked finesse? Ever regretted saying that to the whole of Facebook about 30 seconds after hitting send? Ever wished you had your own personal Leonard Nimoy to proof read your mind-dumps before you make a fool of yourself? Yes, me too, and now you can!

Brought to you by Telus, What Would Leonard Nimoy Say (WWLNS) is a Facebook app, which allows you to run your status updates past the legendary sci-fi actor before slapping them up on Facebook. To use the app you must 'Like' it, and sacrifice your https connection if you happen to have it enabled, but that's the price you pay to have Spock proof read your inane musings.

Check out Telus on Facebook to take the app for a whirl, and jump on over to Engadget to see more Nimoy-Telus combinations.

Telus recruits Leonard Nimoy to vet your Facebook status updates originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 08 Apr 2011 03:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Tempe Wins Suit over Wi-Fi Hardware

Ah, this brings back memories: Cast your mind way way back to 2006, when Tempe, Ariz., was on the cutting edge of municipal wireless systems. The city, which already had its own wireless ring for city backhaul, put out a tender for a firm to provide a combination of public and private services. Neoreach won the bid, and built some of the network out as it shifted through names and subsidiaries, winding up with Gobility as the ultimate owner when the network failed. (Gobility had oceans of issues unrelated to this network.)

While the network hasn't been operational even in part since 2007, the gear was left all over town. Two-thirds of the access points were owned by a leasing firm, Commonwealth Capital Corporation (CCC). If the nodes were abandoned, Tempe alleged, then Tempe would be granted ownership. CCC disagreed, because it hoped to sell the system with the nodes still in place.

CCC sued to have the nodes returned to it after ridiculous attempts were made by it to sell the network. The case ran from Feb. 2009 to March 2011, when the company dismissed its own lawsuit. Tempe, meanwhile, had sued CCC for the rent due on pole usage for the period when CCC was trying to sell the gear. Tempe prevailed in court for $1.8m and ownership of the hardware.

The money assuages the fact that the 4–5-year-old hardware is likely nearly unusable. It should be mostly Strix Systems gear, which appears to still be a going concern, even though its "news spotlight" page refers only to events in 2007. There's likely some backhaul equipment from other makers.

This is the last gear hanging that I'm aware of from the olden days of 2006–2008 that isn't in active use, such as the network in Minneapolis.

Copyright ©2011 Glenn Fleishman. All rights reserved. Please notify us if you find this content anywhere but at wifinetnews.com or wimaxnetnews.com. Reproduction of full articles from RSS feeds is prohibited without permission.

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TUAW's Daily iPhone App: Legacy: Mystery Mansion

It's been a while since we've covered a solid match-three game in this space, and Legacy: Mystery Mansion is exactly that. It's similar to Puzzle Quest in that it puts an overarching storyline in the form of a match-three puzzle title, but it's a little tougher than the more casual entries in the genre, putting a hard time limit on each of 25 stages and taking you through recovering missing antiques in a haunted mansion. I was a big fan of Call of Atlantis' match-three mayhem, and Legacy seems very much in that vein, if just a little more difficult.

At any rate, it seems like an excellent match-three puzzler, and at US 99 cents, the price is just right. It'd be nice to have Game Center integration for leaderboards and achievements, but a free zen mode will have to do for now. Legacy: Mystery Mansion is well worth a try for fans of this very traditional puzzle genre.

TUAW's Daily iPhone App: Legacy: Mystery Mansion originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 29 Jun 2011 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Daily App Deals: Print to Your iPhone with ACTPrinter, Now $0.99

New to Lifehacker, Daily App Deals is a not-quite-quotidian compendium of noteworthy app price drops and discounts.

The Best

Daily App Deals: Print to Your iPhone with ACTPrinter, Now $0.99 ACTPrinter - Virtual Printer for iPhone / iPad (iTunes App Store) Previously $1.99, now $0.99. "Print" documents, emails, webpages and more from any program on your computer directly to your iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch. Your computer will automatically detect your iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch when connected to your AirPort or WiFi network, no need to type in an IP address.

Free

Android:

Image Backup (Android Market) Previously $1.99, now free.

iOS:

Quick Event for iPhone (iTunes App Store) Previously $0.99, now free.

Windows:

WonderFox DVD Ripper (Video Converter Factory) Previously $0.99, now free.

And the Rest

Android:

CoPilot Live Standard USA (Android Market) Previously $4.99, now $2.99.
CoPilot Live Premium USA (Android Market) Previously $40, now $9.99.
MySettings Pro (Android Market) Previously $4.49, now $1.99.

iOS:

FileApp Pro (iTunes App Store) Previously $4.99, now $0.99.
Manage for iPad (iTunes App Store) Previously $2.99, now $1.99.
Textforce - Dropbox text editing for iPhone (iTunes App Store) Previously $3.99, now $2.99.

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Re: Invalid Serial warning because of failed CMOS battery.

If you have SE set to Start With Windows (and reset the clock in Windows, rather than BIOS), it will 'encounter' that radically-wrong date (1899/1900?) as you log on / it starts (before the re-set).

If you either start SE manually after the clock re-set, or do the latter in the BIOS, it shouldn't happen.

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10 Ways to Boost up BitTorrent Downloads

BitTorrent is an incredibly useful tool for large file downloads. It’s a very fast way to share data on internet. You must be using a good torrent client, but when it stops near the end, and/or the seed count is listed as zero, it becomes an annoying situation. Go through this article to find 10 [...]

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This Is What It's Like to Actually Use Google+, Google's New Social Network

Google recently announced its new Google+ social network, but didn't really show us much of what it actually felt like to use. We got our hands on a few invites to show you how it looks, feels, and how you might use it.

The Stream

While different form other networks like Facebook and Twitter, the basics of Google+ will seem pretty familiar. You have a feed of the posts, links, photos, and other info your friends have shared, and you can view their specific updates (as well as personal info about them) via their profile. You can share status updates, links, photos, videos, or even places yourself, and they'll show up in your stream and on your profile. Every shared item has a "+1" button, which is pretty much identical to Facebook's "Like" button—a way for people to say the like the post without writing out a full comment.

Circles

This Is What It's Like to Actually Use Google+, Google's New Social Network While creating "lists" of friends is also nothing new, Google+ makes it much easier to do than other networks, and it's much more central to the "philosophy" of the network. To create a "circle" of friends, you just go to your friends page, and drag and drop users into one of your circles. These can be anything—friends, family, sci-fi geeks, people that like cat pictures, and so on. Google has a few predefined circles, and you can create your own.

When you share something new, Google+ asks you which circles you want to share it with. This avoids the always-default "public" sharing of Facebook and Twitter, where you share your thoughts with everyone, and instead encourages you to share certain things only with the people that would be interested. You can opt to make certain posts public, but by default, Google will prompt you every time you share to pick a list of friends with whom to share your status.

Sparks

Sparks is something we haven't seen much in other networks, in the sense that you can not only share content, but discover it in the same place. From the main Sparks page, you can type in your interests and add them to your sidebar. From there, you can click on any interest and read recent articles, books, or other content that relate to it. You can also share it directly from that page with your friends, which is pretty cool.

It's a nice feature, and definitely innovative, but it'll be interesting to see how this one's actually used. It seems rare that you'd ever stop reading your own favorite blogs and feeds, and sharing stuff from there—so it really just adds one more feed to your list. You can, of course, share links on Google+ from anywhere, not just those that show up in Sparks.

Hangouts

This Is What It's Like to Actually Use Google+, Google's New Social Network Hangouts is a really cool feature that, on the surface, is just group video chatting (but really great group video chatting, mind you). What makes it neat is that it's much more inviting than other video chat services. Instead of planning video chats ahead of time, Google+ gives you a "start a hangout" button, which will then publish an update to your wall saying, for example, "Whitson Gordon is hanging out". Anyone you've let see that update can then come and go as they please, which in theory will make people more likely to video chat on a whim, or just to say hi.

You can also watch YouTube videos in sync with the other people in the hangout, which is a great way to share those funny videos you find and see your friends' reactions. Check out our test drive of Hangouts to see how it runs.

That's all Google+ really has going on, right now. There are some hidden little features that are great (like the ability to j/k through status updates, like you can in Gmail and Google Reader), but it isn't necessarily as mature or fully-featured as some of the social networks you know and love. It is definitely a work in progress, as Google says, but it's one definitely worth checking out if you can snag an invite. They've added quite a few things we haven't seen in other social networks, making it a compelling service. Hit the link below to request an invite, and now that you've seen a bit more of what it's like, share your thoughts with us in the comments.

Google Plus

You can contact Whitson Gordon, the author of this post, at whitson@lifehacker.com. You can also find him on Twitter, Facebook, and lurking around our #tips page.

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Re: Syncback won't backup on schedule

While that version number indicates you are not using the freeware (so far, so good), it doesn't differentiate between the SE & Pro versions (which you haven't stated), but it does show your version is rather out of date - you should update to v5.11.3.0 for free using the appropriate link:

http://www.2brightsparks.com/assets/sof ... _Setup.exe
or
http://www.2brightsparks.com/help/index ... article=16

Do not uninstall / reinstall, or you'll lose your profiles & settings. Just install 'over the top'

Here is what you are missing:

http://www.2brightsparks.com/syncback/changes.html

As updates are currently free, we do not officially support outdated versions:

http://www.2brightsparks.com/help/index ... article=16

Getting to your issue, Access Denied is nothing to do with password protection - it is to do with folder\file security:

http://www.2brightsparks.com/help/index ... rticle=205

If it works OK when run manually, but not on a Schedule, it suggests something slightly broken in the security token that the Windows Task Scheduler is issuing when the Scheduled Task triggers - so that the default permissions & privileges the Task provides to SE/Pro to run 'with' are lower. You could try deleting that Scheduled Task (it may be slightly damaged) and creating another one (which might not be). And/or, try adding your credentials to the Network page in SE/Pro - and also experiment with the order of presentation on the Advanced sub-page below Network

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